Which shop’s most reliable? Trustworthy? Our Say.

NOTE: Warning! Word heavy! Will be updated by staff regularly.

Disclaimer: This review will be highly subjective since it is based on the staff’s experiences.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to 소녀시대! We’re one day late but here is our first special post for a very special occasion. This will be a review of online shops, eBay sellers and physical shops based on our experiences. Hopefully, this review will aid you when deciding to purchase SNSD merchandise.

When purchasing items, especially on the Internet, the first thought that hits many of us is whether the seller is reputable or not. Trustworthy? Reliable? Decent prices? Service? Some of us may have Googled some of these words/phrases when we are uncertain about a seller (well I have) and most of the time it’s when we haven’t dealt with them before. Over the new few pages we review sellers that we deem reputable and highlight places which you should not order from.

Feel free to comment and share your experiences! More reviews would be much appreciated. 🙂

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144 Responses to Which shop’s most reliable? Trustworthy? Our Say.

For those living in Perth Western Australia, k-pop goods are sold at:
Morning Glory, Carillion City, CBD

I’ve seen the photobook, soshi’s albums, socks and unofficial keyrings and badges here. The albums are overpriced (rdr was $40), the photobook was $99, which is reasonable because it’s the same price on yesasia.
The staff there are friendly, one day I had a chat with one about snsd and she thought I was weird “because usually only boys like girls generation.” hahaha

I haven’t purchased snsd goods from morning glory but am a frequent visitor and buy hello kitty stationary and stickers and cute phone charms from here.
The k-pop stuff is only a recent addition and they have only just installed a tv that plays mv’s and dedicated a corner of the store to albums, posters etc. I’m so glad Morning Glory has begun focusing on k-pop and think west australias should give it a visit.

Hi i wanted to ask i have bought things from dvdheaven and have already paid for the item but the ZIP code is wrong is there anyway to solve this.i have already sent the webmaster a mail but i am afraid that he will missed it

Hi again, pip =)
1) register firstly with SoshiGoods if you haven’thttps://www.soshigoods.com/servlet/Register?cart_id=2942624&ps_VISITOR=456155dc-73f4-4d97-b22c-abbd2cb79885&ps_SHOPSESSION=ee942264-9425-49ac-ac53-a6931638ed0d
2) sign in to the new account
3) add the items to your cart
4) click on View Cart (top right corner) to double check the items
5) click on Checkout (top right corner as well)
6) on the left column, you’ll see the Sign In button, so sign in 1 more time
7) Double check your billing address info. Click on Proceed to Step 2
8. Check your shipping address info (billing address & shipping address are usually the same addresses). Click on Proceed to Step 3
9) Choose the shipping preference (Registered Air Mail’s adequate in most cases). Proceed to Step 4
10) Proceed to Step 5
11) Click on Confirm
12) Lastly log on to PayPal account (assuming you’ve have one?) and click Pay Now

Hi Sones! I’m a new-ish English SNSD fan and I was wondering if anyone knows of any physical stores in the UK that sell K-Pop merchandise? I’m happy to buy online, but I’d love to support these shops and visit them if they exist! I’m guessing any that might exist would be in London; would be cool to do some K-Pop browsing next time I’m in the city!

Hello. Do you have any reviews or experiences with http://www.kpoptown.com? They have an ebay shop as well, but the ebay shop is a bit more expensive, so I would prefer from their own website, I’m just not sure if they are trustworthy…

Just a warning for people thinking of purchasing autographed products off ebay.

2 users from malaysia/china (jswpanda, janes678s) are selling really really cheap autographed snsd stuff in masses. Some of the listings for example would have more than 1 in stock. (Lots of people are falling for it sadly, dont fall for it even though they have 99%+ rating)

They also carry autographed new products (SNSD 1st japanese limited 1st press ed, mr taxi poster, etc) which seems impossibile since the girls have such a busy schedule (japan tour, then paris, then back to japan). Also makes no sense since im assuming the girls DID NOT even visit china/malaysia. In addition a korean freind told me specifically and i quote him ” most companies try not to let fans approach singers with posters to be signed”

I would be very careful before purchasing autographed snsd items online. In my opinion only a select few ebay sellers(south korean) carry so called legit merchandise. If you were to absolutley buy one online, i would vouch for happybuykorea/uniqueurlife, and a few others. (Seems like the only trusted sellers atm) I’ve personally bought 2 posters from them and i’m pretty satisfied with them. (They cost alot so I tried to cut down the price but no luck which gave me another reason to trust them)

Just a few last words. PROMO Cds would be considered the most legit items as only a few hundred are distributed. Who in their right mind would try to forge 9 signatures on something already so rare:P

So before you consider buying an autographed item, ask around, get to know the seller, ask freinds who can help you compare signatures, and definatley don’t rush an expensive purchase. (Always best to get them in person ^^)

Edit: Just one last thing i forgot to say. For the chinese seller, most of the korean characters on his items seem like poorly written korean with a chinese writing style to it. Even though it’s in korean it looks like chinese strokes if you know what i mean.

I know getting autographs in person would be best, but unfortunately I’m stuck in my own country for the moment (and the next two years), so that’s impossible for me. I really want to get autographed goods from SNSD and two boygroups and the only seller on ebay offering the ones I want is “jace0337” (http://myworld.ebay.at/jace0337/). There are autographed PROMO cds in his/her shop, so that should be very likely to be real. But then I noticed that a two autographed PROMO cds (with the hologram for PROMO cds and everything) got sold and a few days later they turned up again. (The autographes looked slightly different from the ones being sold, so they are not the same as those being sold before.) One seller having two PROMO cds with real autographs… Isn’t that unlikely? I have noone else to ask, so could you maybe help me compare the autographs of the SNSD autographes and the FT Island autographes the seller offers? Please!

Hi all SONES!! 😀
Wanna ask does anyone knows whether the physical CD store named ‘TX’ in singapore is selling the real SNSD season 1 star card? cos they are selling each pack for SGD19.90… it is mostly in korean,has a small SM entertainment logo printed at the back of the pack, and has a few other stuff (i cant tell wat they are from outside) in the pack too… Hmmm, cos they have many outlets all over sg and usually sell official korean, taiwanese, hongkong, japan movies and drama CD and DVD. And they started selling non-official kpop CDs and DVDs around one year ago and SJ and SNSD starcards like this year(?)… So i m not sure whether its the real one or the duplicate:X er, does anyone here know? pls reply to this comment if you do! thank you v much! ^^

Hi. I found a new online shop: http://kpopmart.com/
It look like a mix of dvdheaven.com and Yesasia and is for most products cheaper. But I don’t know how reliable the service is and what you have to pay for delivery. Perhaps, If you soshicatalogue could review this shop sometime.

Hi, Not sure how old this post is but I seem to have stumbled on it and have a question to ask…
You know any shops in SG which sells Jessica Jung posters?
Couldn’t seem to find individual posters… Anyway, I thank you in advance 😀

If you are looking for authentic autograph goods, I will only suggest Autograph Star cards and the Star Card Bingo Event items (with a picture of the member signing the item). There are so many kinds of autograph stuff on ebay (Posters, albums, even Gucci Bag), and it is very hard to determine if they are really signed by the girls.

The Star Cards is an official SM item, and the Bingo Event goods does include a picture of the girls signing the good, so we can be 100% sure that it is authentic.

Special_mall and those other shops with less than 100 feedback have the same shop layout which made me wonder how? and the jesica signed wallet photo from them was recently sold for $39 was relist the next day by a different shop. They were exactly the same but different colour pens.
I wanted to buy an autograph tiffany from him/her too but i realized it was the same as the other seller who recently just sold it. Usually i compare their signatures but tiffany is one of the members who change her signature the most >< also, some of Yoona's signature on ebay dont even look legit.

hey! i recently won a bid from shop_wif_u for a hyo autographed mr.taxi repackaged photocard at USD 18. it has the exact layout as special_mall.

i compared the so-called hand sign autograph signature with the printed one at the back of the photocard a million times. it looked nothing similar because hyo normally signs with a big heart, with 2 curly lines on top, making it look like a face. but the so-called hand sign one had a small heart. but i still decided to bid for it since the account’s located in south korea and the person has about 50 + positive feedback. what’s more the signature of the other members that the person listed looked similar to the printed one. only hyo’s one was different. so i thought maybe hyo changed her signature or she just didnt feel like signing the normal signature cause there was no space or something. hahah omg me -.-

it wasn’t until i won it that i started to get skeptical. i compared her signature with the autographed star cards. i even compared down to every stroke, and apparently the strokes were different. and then i checked up on the snsd autographed albums that the person was trying to sell. they stated they got the album signed on the 12 nov 2011 at a spao autograph session. sounds so believable right? but no, i checked soshified’s events calender, there wasn’t a spao autograph session on the 12th, only on the 25th. and then i went to check webcams, apparently the girls signed on white papers and not albums. and only hyo, sun, tae, yoong was there. so how the hell did they get all 9 members to sign on the albums? and so if the albums are forged, means the card i bought was forged too right? since there wasn’t a description on how they got the cards signed, so i emailed them will all the loopholes i found. and said i know you opened more than one account, selling the same items just signed with different pens. i demanded a refund unless they can specifically tell me how they got my card signed since there wasn’t any stated for the autographed cards, only the albums.

and all the person replied was “i refunded you the money”
sounds guilty to me. so please don’t fall for their scam! seriously. i saw their past transaction history, and apparently there’s ppl that paid about 70 USD for snsd’s autographed album. well at least they were willing to refund me my money.

and for those that bought items for them, i hope they never find out about this. it’s better that they believe it’s real for the rest of their lives. okay for this rant here. what a long comment, gosh.

Have you told Ebay about this? cause they are still selling SNSD stuff. I bought my ones from special_mall

I was more than a little suspicious when I noticed that all the Tiffany signitures were all missing the mini heart on the end but I let it slide because they were slagging off other shops who sold fake autographs and how they always provide info of where they got it from

but after reading your comment I’m furious after realizing how much time and money I wasted on them. Please report them to Ebay so they don’t rif off any more people I’m sure the fact they refunded ur money without comment is admission enough

and btw there were like another 30 SNSD autos on auction from special_mall atm
about 10 were alleged Tiffany’s someone has to stop these people

I saw that they had many SNSD autographs so I got even more suspicious about their authenticity. Jessica’s autographs are no where near her actual autograph because usually I see Jessica’s signature is all neat and nice but when I saw the ones in the persons shop it was like scribbles. special_mall and the other shops are the same layout and everything so I’m pretty sure its the same person. Also I checked their feedback and it seems like that person is just making multiple accounts to sell and give positive feedback to each account. Is Ebay going to do something about it, if I report them? because it’s like scamming people.

guys, i left a negative feedback on the person’s ebay account, saying “seller refunded $ as soon as i posed doubts to authenticity of autographs. guilty”

i was kinda afraid the person would retaliate by giving me a negative feedback too. but who knows, the person actually tried to bribe me to revise the feedback! he/she is offering to pay me. this is 100% x a million times confirmed it’s a scam.

i even emailed freaking ebay. but still no response.

and hence i agree, it’s better for those who fell for the scam to never find out the truth. the truth will hurt man. and i hope whoever who’s considering to bid for one of the items will check up this page and realize the scam before it’s too late!

That just proves that its a scam. I also hope the people who bought the items don’t find out, but if they find out is it possible for them to dispute it? I hope so, because people were bidding a whole lot for the albums. I doubt ebay is going to do anything about it though because it’s like the same with jswpanda who sells fake autographs and I’m pretty sure a lot of people has reported the seller for selling fakes but their account is still there and people are still buying them.

i tried reporting EVERY single autographed item they listed. but from the stream of newly listed items that keeps popping up everyday, i doubt ebay is doing anything about my reports. and everytime i see people bidding for the autograph items, i feel so bad for those people, but there’s nothing i can really do about it.

i think the only way ebay will do something about this, like close down special_mall, is when there’s more than one people reporting them.

so whoever who has had transactions with special_mall, do report and help bring down this scam!

Yeah, the best thing to actually do for them is to not tell them its fake…
Its better for them to believe its real and be happy instead of telling them its fake and shattering their heart… O… I pity the gullible sones as I was one of them before 😦

On second thought, after I looked at it, not sure about it. Just want to check with u, is it the official run devil run album released by sm and whats the difference between the repackaged one and the original 1? Does the repackaged 1 have different photocards? Thanks for your time and ur help! 😀

Hey! Thanks for your speedy reply! Can I know the difference between the originall version and the repakaged one? Which one will you recommend? The repakaged one looks pretty awesome but doesn’t look like it has the stuff like the boys… Love to hear your opinion! Thanks again!

Sorry to bother you again! But is it possible for you to help me list down all de albums GG released(Repackaged and original) Tried searching but not sure whether reliable…
Thanks and may God bless you! 😀

The thing is, there is no original Run Devil Run album. Oh! = original. Oh! repackage = Run Devil Run. Just like The Boys repackage = Mr. Taxi.
So, despite the Oh! package looking better, I would recommend Run Devil Run, as you’ll just get more songs (besides, Oh! doesn’t contain Run Devil Run ;))

OMG, I just bought Jessica’s “Almost” photobook (signed, 42 dollars) on Ebay from a seller named official_kpop. This shop uses the same store lay-out as special_mall. I’ve also bought the album Oh! which was signed by all nine girls for 31 dollars. I’ve also bought two signed photocards (Seohyun and Jessica) from special_mall. The orders have been sent already. Now I read the comments on this forum about special_mall and the fact that they’re selling fake autographs, what can I do?! I don’t care about Jessica’s photobook, because it’s still worth it as a rare item and I want to have it, but I definitely want my money back for the fake Oh! album and the photocards!! I’m a huge SNSD fan and I would really like to buy a REAL signed item. Anybody any suggestions where to shop on ebay or else on the web for authentic SNSD signed items (don’t care if its a CD, DVD, poster, card whatever)? Should I ask for money reimbursement?
Kind regards, a huge SNSD fan from Holland!!!

Yeah, you definitely should, you could point out the loop-holes to them and make them refund it to you… They most probably should, but I think thats the most you can do… If they say no, probably stop other sones from buying stuff from him again? >.< Anyway, why didn't you check the comments before buying the items?

Thats great! Tell me the result when you get it… Sorry, I dun specialize in signatures, not really sure if its authentic or not… Maybe someone else can help? Anyway, you may get scammed like last time so I strongly suggest that you dun and you get their signatures in person.
Sorry but God Bless! 😀

Yeah, it should be, looks pretty decent…
Also, I did a bit of research and they said they send a picture to ur email to prove its going to be shipped…
Why not u buy from more obvious stores like ebay? >.<

Hey guys, its me again! So sorry for the constant dumb questions but here is a question I’ve asked last time and thx to the ppl who answered me…

Can you name me all the snsd albums they’ve released?(PLEASE dun give me a link, i dun understand then post one >.<)
The "Big" Albums they've released…
Only Korean and Japanese full albums plz 😀
Thanks guys, you've hv been a great help and in case anyone here lives in sg and has an official jessica notebook(gd condition not used) trade with my taeyeon notebook?
THANKS ❤

Hey guys, this comment will probably get deleted because its not related but I really need your support! Here’s a Facebook fan page I’ve created for GG but its not really getting a lot of likes… D: Thanks so much sones ❤http://www.facebook.com/soshiescheckthis

I ordered SHINee cd and Big Bang Light sticks from a site called KpopMecca (www.kpopmecca.com) Shipping was prompt good pricing. What more can I ask lol
I just saw this post and wrote my experience.
Have a good day everyone!

Hi! I recently found two sites, named Kpop Heaven and Kpop Town. Now I’m not looking for autographed or anything, but I wanted to know which site is better or more reliable and some pros and cons would be nice~ My friend bought from Kpop Town, but all she bought was some jewelry. I’m considering a hat and some cosmetics and accessories. I thank in advance to anyone who will answer~ P.S. Thanks for posting this review section, SoShi Catalogue~!

Yeah don’t buy from jswpanda….
The comments kind of got me getting worried about the authenticity of my CDs, but thats what the seals on the covers are for right? I purchase the majority of my eBay stuff from pandoramusic, as they offer w/ postage the same as yeaasia do wo/ postage, but I get new releases from one of those pop-up sellers. When I buy multiple items or things like DVDs that cost more than $39 I use yeaasia as it seems more established and trustworthy.

About uniqueurlife on ebay, I recommend sones to be a little suspicious about the authenticity of the autographs.

I saw that they had a JYJ SKK Scandal autographed cd, and at first, I was really excited and wanted it to be true. However, after reading some of the comments here at soshicatalogue, I couldn’t determine for sure whether the autographs were real, so I decided to look up samples of Jaejoong’s autographs for fanclubs in the past (just because I know his handwriting the best out of everyone).

Jaejoong’s handwriting/autograph in real life is really pretty, precise and always carefully done, and after comparing 5-6 samples from 2009 to 2012 with the autographed album on ebay, I’m 80-90% sure that the autograph on ebay is fake because it’s very sloppily done in regards to some points…for example, Jaejoong always autographs with certain curves ending in an upward direction, but uniqueurlife’s autograph on ebay lacks those very distinguishing characteristics/details. There are other details consistently in Jaejoong’s autographs that the one on ebay lacks.

Of course, I can’t generalize this JYJ item to say that all of the signed soshi items of uniqueurlife are fake and maybe Jaejoong was having a terrible and off day when he signed that cd, but knowing my bias, I do think that the autograph is fake and I just want sones to be aware of this when they make the decision whether to purchase an expensive autograph from uniqueurlife off of ebay.

—————
In regards to other ebay sellers:

grapemusiccd is a very reliable seller and the items arrive in good condition. i’ve bought several snsd albums from her (rdr, hoot…and jyj’s in heaven. tvxq’s kyhd), but i’ve found that i can generally get albums with posters for a cheaper price from other ebay sellers (because of lower shipping fees and album prices). also, shipping takes a while…even longer than from ebay sellers listed in korea.

jace0337 is also a wonderful and very trustworthy seller. i bought one taeyeon photobook and one eunhyuk photobook from this seller and they arrived quickly, in excellent condition and with freebie socks. unfortunately, photobooks are really expensive (but less expensive than the jane___ seller on ebay).

withus-sone.tumblr.com is also trustworthy though since she does preorders from the u.s., sometimes photobooks end up not sending certain extra goodies to international fans that they do to the korean fans. flying petals was kind enough to send out the missing goodies (though that meant i had to pay extra shipping for the missing items). team adonis i believe had a dvd that international fans just never got. also, since it’s based internationally, it probably will take longer than ordering from a korean seller on ebay. however, you can usually save USD $10-15 if you order from her.

I’ve never heard of Rangeroux, but I was going to order from K2P before I saw the shipping/handling cost which was through the roof. Any of the other stores listed here are better, it’s best to stick to them 🙂

DON’T BUY FROM RANGEROUX. I bought something from them, paid them 6 months ago and up till today, have not seen my goods. I sent them emails but they don’t bother to reply. So, I guess my money is gone for good!

Silvercoldmetal on ebay is a really good seller and does quite a large range of kpop cd’s and posters.
I’ve had two orders from them now (Big Bang’s Alive and SNSD’s RDR) and both got to me packaged very well and it was also quicker than yesasia (which took about a month and a half!!!!) and kpoptown! This is to the UK and they both got here within two weeks.

Hi everyone. I want to get the dvd “All about girls generation paradise in phuket” (6dvd +photobook). However, it is out of stock on those website that I use to buy snsd cd. Can anyone tell me where I am still able to get it. Pleaseeee help me Sone~~~~

Hi, I was wondering if uniqueurlife was reliable for buying autographed cds from…I’ve read comments before on how he’s the only reliable seller on ebay with actual authentic autographs, but just wanted to see your guys take on it, thanks!

anyone knows if kpopmecca is secure ?
3 weeks ago I did an order there and I received an email of order confirmation. but i don’t received an email about shipping information or something … and i’m so worried about this … i spend $48 USD there …

For photocards/star cards I have a few: susiataiji, siwonbiz, my5star, jewelryjaehoon, kshop4u, phuminvisions, eycho0916. I’ve dealt with all these sellers numerous times and never had a problem. Items always arrive sooner than expected (except during the holidays~), and are always in great condition.

BEWARE OF ASIANDB! I’ve purchased around $500 on them, most of the is new Genie first press limited edition (well you know how expensive they are), but I’ve got opened stuff (with members with value that sell not much..). Moreover, I’ve ordered three but only two came.
At first they say they’ll refund the one missing item but refuse the return of the two items.
But then next, the seller is unresponsive.
So yeah, I got to sell those stuff for a total of $200. What a total scam.

asiandb is just plain horrible! i ordered 8 magazines from them, and after one month, the status is still “searching”. Decided to cancel, and till now, practically no responses from them, mail after mail! Raising dispute with my credit card company.

Thank you for this! I’d really appreciate a response. I’ve been trying and trying to convince my mom kpoptown is safe, but I use WOT (Web Of Trust) and there are no reviews, meaning it doesn’t have a good safety rating. I know a lot of people have used it and are satisfied, but could you give me confirmation? Who’s used it a lot and have you been satisfied? Are you 100% sure it’s not a scam? Thank you for all of the sight suggestions though ^^ I’m really glad I’ve found this!

Hi Haruhi Suzumiya. For the first time, I just purchased Snsd Holiday photobook from Kpoptown and I can say it’s quite reliable and provide a good service. As for my first experience, it’s not scam at all. The packaging was good and they will email you the pictures of the parcel and our item being wrapped with bubble.

Hello I’d really like some help if possible I know this is called soshicatalogue but you guys seem to be pretty informed on autographed items in general, I want to purchase the bob girls promo cd from this seller: mojosajo on ebay and the thing is I really dont care about the autograph I just want the cd to be honest but I want to know if the price he is offering im guessing based on the fact its autographed is a legit price does anyone have any experience with him? Again sorry I know this is soshi but you guys seem like you can help:)

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DISCLAIMER

Items shown are NOT sold by us. We merely collect info in hopes of aiding you, our readers. We are NOT to be held responsible for any issues you may acquire while purchasing from various sellers, online retail stores, etc.